Best Open Source LLMs (2026)
Top open-weight and open-source large language models you can self-host, fine-tune, or access via affordable third-party APIs — ranked by benchmark performance.
Why Llama 4 Maverick is Best for Open Source LLMs
Llama 4 Maverick ranks highest for this use case based on Arena ELO score, benchmark performance, and capability coverage. It provides the best combination of quality, speed, and reliability for these specific tasks.
Cost Estimate
For a typical workload (~50M tokens/month, 60% input / 40% output), the cheapest qualifying model (Phi-4) costs approximately $4.75/month. The most capable model may cost more but delivers higher quality results.
Price vs Quality for Open Source LLMs
Alibaba
Deepseek
Meta
Microsoft
Mistral
Top 5 Models Compared
| Rank | Model | Provider | Input $/M | Output $/M | Arena ELO | Speed (tok/s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Llama 4 Maverick | Meta | $0.150 | $0.600 | 1290 | 90 |
| #2 | Llama 4 Scout | Meta | $0.080 | $0.300 | 1250 | 110 |
| #3 | DeepSeek V3 | DeepSeek | $0.200 | $0.770 | 1280 | 85 |
| #4 | DeepSeek R1 | DeepSeek | $0.700 | $2.50 | 1310 | 45 |
| #5 | Qwen 2.5 Max | Alibaba | $0.160 | $0.640 | 1260 | 80 |
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